For those in need of a guide to JK Rowling’s model village in The Casual Vacancy, here’s an account of its inhabitants.

4:15PM BST 27 Sep 2012

The Fairbrothers

Barry Fairbrother: a local councillor in the parish of Pagford, Barry grew up in the housing estate called The Fields – a row over which drives the novel’s plot. Liked by everyone except his right-wing enemies, Barry dies of an aneurysm in the first scene, leaving a vacancy on the council, and in people’s lives.

Mary Fairbrother, his wife: Mary, the small blonde grieving widow, is the only person close to Barry who resents him. He spent so much time defending the disadvantged, she feels, that he neglected those at home.

Their four children: Fergus, Niamh, Siobhan, Declan – aged 18 to 12.

The Mollisons

Howard Mollison: the owner of the upscale local deli, Mollison and Lowe, Howard is morbidly obese, wears a deerstalker behind the counter, and considers himself to be the first citizen of Pagford. When Barry Fairbrother dies, he can barely conceal his glee over the opportunity to install someone from his camp on the council. The person he chooses is his son Miles

Shirley Mollison, his wife: If anyone hates Barry Fairbrother more than Howard, it’s Shirley, who lives in continous denial of everything except her husband and son’s marvellous nature

Miles Mollison, their son: Miles is a lawyer, a perfect son in thrall to his parents, and a terrible bore in the eyes of his wife

Samantha Mollison, Miles’s wife: Samantha is the epitome of a frustrated housewife, the source of much of the book’s comedy (she owns a shops that sells outsize bras – it’s called Over the Shoulder Boulder Holders) but two-dimensional nevertheless.

Lexie and Libby, Miles and Samantha’s children: the gilrs have been sent as weekly boarders to a private school, so they don;t have to keep company with the children from the Fields – in particular Krystal Weedon, who once beat one of them up.

Pat Mollison, Howard and Shirley’s estranged daughter: Pat turns up late in the book. The purpose of her appearance seems to be to add insult to the injury of Howard and Shirley’s prejudice.

Maureen, a widow who has worked in Howard’s deli for decades, now his business partner and Shirley’s nemesis.

The Jawandas

Parminder Jawanda: the ever-angry local GP, friend of Barry Fairbrother and his supporter on the council.

Vikram Jawanda, her husband: a handsome heart surgeon much swooned-over by Samantha Mollison.

Rajpal, Jaswant and Sukhvinder, their teenage children. Jaswant and Rajpal are straight-A students. Sukhvinder is the overweight, self-harming black sheep of the family, of whom her mother despairs, and who is the brunt of Stuart Wall’s merciless taunts. She befriends the beautiful Gaia Bawden.

The Prices

Ruth Price: a nurse, who befriends Shurley Mollison when Shirley volunteers at the hospital in the hope of meeting the Queen on a royal visit.

Simon Price: her violent, abusive, corrupt husband. Simon decides to run for Barry Fairbrother’s council seat on the basis of incorrect information about the possibility of kickbacks.

Andrew and Paul, their sons: Andrew hates his father with a vengeance, and pities his mother bitterly. Similarly to but independently from fellow teenagers, he engages in a scheme to bring his father down. This provides the whodunnit aspect of the book’s plot.

The Walls

Tessa Wall: a guidance counsellor at the local school, Tessa finds Krystal Weedon in her office most days.

Colin – known as “Cubby” – Wall, her husband: Colin, deupty headmaster at the school, suffers from an obsessive compulsive disorder that leads him to believe he has committed crimes he hasn’t. In adoring memory of his friend Barry Fairbrother, Colin plans to stand for his seat.

Stuart, their adopted son, known as “Fats”: Fats is Pagford’s resident existentialist. In his quest for “authenticity”, he seeks out Krystal Weedon’s sexual favours.

The Weedons

Terri Weedon: Terri is a heroin addict and sometime prostitute who lives in the Fields. She has lost custody of two of her children, and rsisk losing custody of the remianing two.

Krystal Weedon, her daughter: Krystal, who lives in the Fields with her mother, is Pagford’s foul-mouthed bully and school slapper. because Barry Fairbrother took her under his wing, she becomes the novel’s unlikely heroine, and her life story a way of telling how society goes wrong.

Robbie Weedon, her son: Three year-old Robbie is smallest casualty and greatest hope of Terri’s threatened and possibly unsalvageable life. He is the thing that keeps Krystal going, and that keeps Terri, as far as possible, off the drugs.

Nana Cath: Terri’s grandmother has taken care of her diaspora of grandchildren and great-children. A benign but ultimately only temporary refuge.

Obbo: Terri’s sinister and violent drug dealer.

Kay Bawden: a social worker who has recently moved to Pagford with her daughter, to be with her boyfriend Gavin. The Weedons become cases in her care.

Gaia, her daughter: Gaia is a beautiful 16 year-old, lusted after by Andrew Price, and befriended by Sukhvinder Jawanda. She is desperate to move back to London.

Gavin: Kay’s feeble and indecisive boyfriend – also a partner in Miles’s law firm, and formerly Barry Fairbrother’s best friend.